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The process of invention is integral to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's (SAIC) Department of Art and Technology Studies curriculum.

Complex technological systems comprise much of the support structure and communications environment we rely on in daily life. We artists are relentlessly appropriating, repurposing, and subverting these systems in order to critique their provenance, reveal their hidden potentials, unlock experiential possibilities, or suggest alternative social frameworks. Often the seeds of new creative behaviors are hidden within the very complexity and instability of modern technological systems, waiting to be released. While technology can be applied in traditional disciplines, in Art and Technology Studies our discipline is one of invention through the generation, hacking, and subversion of systems.

Emerging technologies often stimulate the invention of new forms. Faculty and students in SAIC's art and technology graduate programs not only create new aesthetic experiences, but often the very tools and processes with which they are achieved. Through the department’s innovative curriculum, creating and manipulating objects, images, sound, text, music, voice, and movement are explored in tandem with custom-written software, emerging materials, unconventional processes, and new methods of integration with other technologies and fields of practice.

The Art and Technology Studies graduate curriculum is grouped within the following conceptual areas:

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For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.